Twin Cities bridge collapses into river

At least 7 killed, 60 injured as dozens of vehicles fall

August 02, 2007|By Jon Hilkevitch and James Janega, Tribune staff reporters and Tribune staff reporters John McCormick and Mary Owen contributed to this report, as did Tribune news services.

MINNEAPOLIS — Investigators will sift through records and wreckage to determine what caused an interstate highway bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minnesota's Twin Cities to collapse during the Wednesday evening rush hour.

The disaster sent dozens of vehicles crashing into the river with panicked drivers and passengers trapped inside, authorities said. At least seven people were confirmed dead, Minneapolis city officials said. At least 60 people were taken to area hospitals, officials said.

The 40-year-old arched bridge, Interstate Highway 35W in Minneapolis, had been undergoing routine resurfacing this summer, according to the state Department of Transportation. It was not immediately known whether the construction, which did not involve the bridge's structure, was a factor in the roadway buckling.

Rescue workers said late Wednesday that no more victims had been pulled out alive, and that operations had shifted from rescue mode to recovery. Rescuers called off the search as nightfall made it too dangerous to search the waters, which were filled with chunks of the mangled bridge and at least 50 vehicles in the water.

Bright white lights from the collapse site streets created a haze over the river and created silhouettes from the dark hulks of wrecked cars and trucks that lay on the bridge. Tired rescue workers made their way to nearby hotels, and bar patrons in the trendy Seven Corners neighborhood a block away commiserated about the day's events in awed tones.

The bridge went down suddenly and fast, witnesses said. They recounted how the center section of the 64-foot-high steel structure began to crumble first, in a "V" shape without warning, and the rest of the bridge then broke into huge sections.

Numerous vehicles caught on fire and rescuers plucked survivors from the water. The wreckage of the bridge was scattered along the east bank of the Mississippi, and a large piece of roadway remained on the west bank.

Peter Siddons was on his commute home north when he heard "crunching" and saw the bridge start to roll and then crumple, he told the Star Tribune. "It kept collapsing, down, down, down until it got to me."

His car dropped with the bridge but stopped when his car rolled into the car in front of him. He got out of his car, jumped over the crevice between the highway lanes and crawled up the steeply tilted section of broken bridge and jumped to the ground.

"I thought I was dead," said the senior vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. "Honestly, I honestly did. I thought it was over."

By late evening, the rescue response was halted and the focus of divers shifted to a recovery effort, emergency officials said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty called the collapse a "catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota."

Investigative team sent

A team from the National Transportation Safety Board was expected to arrive Thursday to begin a forensic analysis and comb through maintenance and inspection records. The safety board team will range from structural engineers to emergency response specialists. A spokesman for the Homeland Security Department said the collapse did not appear to be terrorism-related.

Minnesota transportation officials said the bridge deck was scheduled for replacement as early as 2020, but no structural deficiencies were detected during inspections last year and in 2005. Repairs described as "cosmetic" were made.

An evaluation of the bridge in 2001 turned up no signs of stress-related cracking in the bridge's deck truss. But the Minnesota Department of Transportation study showed several fatigue problems with the roadway connection leading to the bridge.

The current bridge work involved concrete repair, guardrail and lighting replacement and work on the joints, according to state transportation officials.

Mary Small, who lives in northeast Minneapolis, said I-35W is "not a bridge of strangers." Most of her family live along the corridor and use the bridge regularly. Her son was on the bridge four minutes before it collapsed, she said.

"When we heard about it, we had to do a complete head count," she said. "It's a bridge of our neighbors and our family and our friends."

People who work near the bridge said it had been under construction for most of the summer with resurfacing work. It is a structure that only carries vehicles, with other nearby spans carrying rail and pedestrian traffic.

The bridge is near the University of Minnesota campus as well as the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, home of the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings.

"The bridge got a clean bill of health three years ago, and obviously something went terribly wrong," Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman said on CNN.

Melissa Hughes of Minneapolis was driving a car that ended up under the north end of the bridge.

"It seemed like people and things were in the air that weren't supposed to be there," she said.

Four drivers and a 12-year-old boy were huddled nearby, their cars having slid into the water as the north end collapsed.